Kings throughout medieval and early modern Europe had extraconjugal sexual partners. Only in France, however, did the royal mistress become a quasi-institutionalized political position. This study explores the emergence and development of the position of French royal mistress through detailed portraits of nine of its most significant incumbents: Agnès Sorel, Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, Diane de Poitiers, Gabrielle d'Estrées, Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc, Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Françoise d'Aubigné, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, and Jeanne Bécu.
Beginning in the fifteenth century, key structures converged to create a space at court for the royal mistress. The first was an idea of gender already in place: that while women were legally inferior to men, they were men's equals in competence. Because of their legal subordinancy, queens were considered to be the safest regents for their husbands, and, subsequently, the royal mistress was the surest counterpoint to the royal favorite. Second, the Renaissance was a period during which people began to experience space as theatrical. This shift to a theatrical world opened up new ways of imagining political guile, which came to be positively associated with the royal mistress. Still, the role had to be activated by an intelligent, charismatic woman associated with a king who sought women as advisors. The fascinating particulars of each case are covered in the chapters of this book.
Thoroughly researched and compellingly narrated, this important study explains why the tradition of a politically powerful royal mistress materialized at the French court, but nowhere else in Europe. It will appeal to anyone interested in the history of the French monarchy, women and royalty, and gender studies.
Acknowledgments
Introduction: What Was It About France?
1. The Beginning of a Tradition: Agnès Sorel
2. A Tradition Takes Hold: Anne de Pisseleu d’Heilly
3. Diane de Poitiers: Epitome of the French Royal Mistress
4. Gabrielle d’Estrées: Never the Twain Shall Meet
5. The Mistresses of the Sun King: La Vallière, Montespan, Maintenon
6. Tearing the Veil: Pompadour and Du Barry
Epilogue: Mistress-Queen and the End of a Tradition: Marie Antoinette
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“Intensively researched and engagingly written, this innovative work traces the history of the royal mistress in France, demonstrating their impressive social, political, and cultural influence. The book examines the development of this unique position, which was a counterpart (and rival) to that of the queen—ultimately arguing that Marie Antoinette fell by trying to play the traditional roles of both queen and mistress, rocking the foundations of French queenship and the court itself.”
—Elena Woodacre, author of The Queens Regnant of Navarre: succession, politics and partnership, 1274 1512
